Sanding is quite dull. You take some paper with miniature rocks stuck to one side and rub it a few times against your piece of tree. This enhances the look of the wood inversely proportional to the ache in your arms. In the meantime everything gets a liberal coating of dust.
Some of the larger gaps had to be built up with polyester car-body filler and smaller holes with knifing putty. Both of these products are quite uncontrollable (in my hands), but I threw in a bit more sanding to compensate.
If wood dust isn't sufficient, sanding through layers of paint and filler gives several different colours of dust. I tried light brown, white and two or three different shades of grey. Not fifty though - it's the wrong sort of curves.
Perhaps a camouflage paint job would have been an idea? This shows the high-spots and low spots left by the straight grinder. Then I did some sanding.
A lot of the time it is difficult to see any improvement. Whilst waiting for signs of progress it is worth doing some sanding to pass the time...
After a bit more sanding, most blemishes are blended in fairly well. This process could carry on almost indefinitely, but I'm not a stickler for absolute perfection. A few more coats of Filler / Primer and I reckon it's nearly ready for the top coat to be applied.
Strangely, the filler primer is a light brown / orange sort of colour. Looks promising...
I think six bolts should be enough to keep the neck on.
